Catholic University ‘renaissance’ returns church principles to academic life

The Catholic University of America has entered an era in which church doctrine is central to every aspect of the school’s mission — from educational offerings to dormitory assignments — with some faculty calling the new age a “renaissance.”

Far from being the country’s largest Catholic institution of higher learning, the university, situated in Northeast Washington, is striving to be one of the church’s most influential with its effort to apply its founding principles throughout academic and student life.

Case in point: The Catholic University has opened the Busch School of Business & Economics, which aims to crank out business degrees and to integrate the best of Catholic theology and philosophy with the best of economic and management theory.

Tim Busch addresses students at ‘the pope’s business school’

“I saw this as an opportunity where we could make a huge impact at the most important Catholic University in America, and one of the most important Catholic universities in the world,” Busch said.

The mission of the Busch School of Business and Economics is to provide education and scholarship informed by the principles of human dignity, solidarity, subsidiarity and the common good, in order to form students who will influence society in a positive way. During his Nov. 15 address, Busch noted that in the last 40 years, the free market system has raised 80 percent of the people of the world out of poverty.

“This business school is about educating people on free market principles, but doing it in a holistic, and what we call principled entrepreneurship method,” Busch said. “The reason business got a bad name…is because there were too many people trying to make money (just) for the purpose of making money...”